The Criterion Collection closes out 2015 with the
announcement this past week of its December DVD and Blu-ray release calendar.
If you are fan of filmmaker David Cronenberg, then the DVD
and Blu-ray release of documentary filmmaker Howard Brookner’s 1983 film, Burroughs:
The Movie, on Dec. 15 will be of particular interest.
In 1991 Cronenberg adapted William S. Burroughs’ landmark
novel, The Naked Lunch (aka: Naked Lunch) for the screen and it
proved to be one of those iconic films that has stood the test of time.
Burroughs: The Movie was thought to have been lost, but a print
was discovered in 2011 and has been given an hi-def transfer. Bonus features include newly prepared video
sessions with filmmakers Jim Jarmusch, Aaron Brookner, and Tom DiCillo, plus
Burroughs’ contemporaries, James Grauerholz and Stewart Meyer, outtakes and an
alternate early cut of the film by Robert
E. Fulton Jr.
Elsewhere
on the December release schedule from Criterion we have a newly-prepared
restoration of director Michael Ritchie’s 1969 film, Downhill Racer, which
followed closely on the heels of, and was overshadowed by, his breakout
performance as The Sundance Kid in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
The
street date for the Blu-ray edition is Dec. 1 (the DVD version was released in
2009 by The Criterion Collection).
Included as bonus nuggets are vintage
interviews with filmmaker Michael Ritchie (audio-only, 1977) and actor Robert
Redford, screenwriter and novelist James Salter, film editor Richard Harris,
production manager Walter Coblenz and technical adviser Joe Jay Jalbert
(all from the 2009 DVD release) and the 1969 short film titled How
Fast?
The following week, Dec. 8, look for a new 4K restoration of
Speedy,
the 1928 silent comedy starring Harold Lloyd.
Direction was by Ted Wilde (who died at just 40 years of age the
following year of a sudden stroke) … he also directed Harold Lloyd in The
Kid Brother in 1927.
Bonus features on the DVD and Blu-ray SKUs include
commentary from the Film Forum’s Bruce Goldstein, who is joined by TCM’s
director of program production Scott McGee, a new short documentary titled In
the Footsteps of Speedy, home movies from Harold Lloyd, a 1919 silent
short film, Bumping Into Broadway and snippets from Hearst Newsreels
featuring Babe Ruth (he appears as himself in Speedy).
Also streeting on Dec. 8 are DVD and Blu-ray editions of
renown Japanese artist Takashi Murakami’s first attempt as a filmmaker with the
fantasy film release of Jellyfish Eyes.
A limited domestic theatrical run generated ticket sales of
$8,176 and the ARR for this Japanese-language import (with English subtitles)
works out to 144 days.
In post-Fukushima Japan, a young boy is relocated to a small
town (having lost his father in the massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami)
where he discovers a magical creature and makes friends with it.
At school he soon learns that all of the other students have
creatures of their own … but instead of enjoying the companionship of these
strange visitors, the boys have taken to pitting them against each other in
battle. Something magical, yet perhaps
sinister is going on that leads to his uncle’s research company.
Bonus goodies include a video session with Takashi Murakami
and a pair of behind-the-scenes featurettes.
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